Green Tomato Salsa Verde Recipe

Salsa verde is my all time favorite type of salsa. I’m actually snacking on some of this homemade deliciousness as I’m writing this post! In the past I’ve made homemade tomatillo salsa verde from our homegrown tomatillos. This year we ended up using all our tomatillos and some green tomatoes to make homemade enchilada sauce (recipe coming soon!).

Since we harvested a couple hundred pounds of green tomatoes last week, we cooked up a huge batch of green tomato salsa verde. We now have 48 pint jars of green tomato salsa verde canned and sitting in the pantry to snack on all winter long!

Salsa verde can be made with just tomatillos, just green tomatoes or a mixture of both. They are in the same plant family, have a similar consistency and similar taste. We used about 1/4 of our green tomatoes to make a whopper batch of salsa verde and still have well over 100 pounds of tomatoes sitting in the mud room slowly ripening (if you missed it, here’s our post with five tips to ripen green tomatoes).

This spring when planting seeds for our garden, I knew we would be making and canning homemade salsa in the fall. I made sure we planted and grew as many of the ingredients as we could: onions, tomatoes, garlic and cilantro. Unfortunately we can’t grow limes in our cold climate so we had to buy those at the store! Knowing we grew the majority of the ingredients in our green tomato salsa verde makes it all the more tasty!

How to make Green Tomato Salsa Verde

The recipe we used is similar to the one on the Ball Canning website since it has been tested for canning safety. The recipe makes about three pint jars but it can be easily multiplied based on how many green tomatoes you have. We made seven batches of this salsa, which produced 48 pints of canned salsa.

You can keep the salsa in the refrigerator for about a week (if it lasts that long) or you can freeze it or can it. In the past when I’ve made a small batch, I just froze it in small containers since I didn’t want to get out all my canning supplies for just a few small jars. This year we made such a huge batch that we canned it.

2. Place the green tomatoes into a food processor and pulse until chopped fine. Pour the green tomatoes into a large soup pot.

3. Place the onion, garlic, and jalapeno peppers in the food processor. Pulse until chopped fine. Pour into the soup pot with the green tomatoes.

4. Pour the lime juice into the soup pot and stir. Heat to boiling and then simmer for 5-10 minutes. When making a big batch, you may need to simmer it longer to make sure everything is heated through.

5. Place the cilantro in the food processor and pulse until chopped fine. Stir into the salsa mixture in the soup pot.

6. Mix in salt to taste.

7. If the salsa is too bitter and tart for your taste, add a little sugar to sweeten it up.

Notes

Refrigerate for up to one week. This also freezes well and canned in a water bath canner.

By Montana Homesteader

Montana Homesteader http://montanahomesteader.com/

Canning Green Tomato Salsa Verde

The Ball Canning recipe for Green Tomato Salsa Verde does not mention a need to add more lime juice to each batch. Because we made such a huge batch of this salsa, we wanted to make sure there was enough acidity consistently in each jar to ensure it was shelf stable after canning. The standard I’ve read for adding lemon or lime juice to jars before canning is 1 TBS juice for a pint jar and 2 TBS juice for a quart jar. We added 1 TBS lime juice to each pint jar of salsa before putting on the lid and canning it. We’ve opened jars of our canned salsa and tasted it with the added lime juice and it is so delicious!

Fill hot clean canning jars with the green tomato salsa and leave about 3/4″ headspace (only leave 1/2″ headspace if not adding extra lime juice). Add the additional lime juice to each jar, wipe the jar rim clean, put on the lid and canning ring. Process the jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes (don’t forget to adjust for your altitude!) Once the jars are done, remove them from the canner and wait to hear that magical “Ping” telling you the jar has sealed!

Can I somehow substitute the chilantro? I live in Denmark, and chilantro doesn’t seem to exist here. Our supermarkets are… rediculous. Jalapenos are available in supermakets. I have lots of green tomatoes… would love to use them!

I was wondering the same thing and I’ve been canning for years. So please don’t think you’re alone in questioning this. Often what people think are stupid questions, several others are wondering the same thing but are too afraid to ask. I was going to ask but, you beat me to it. Ha. Thanks for asking!

1. can I use apple cider vinegar instead of lime juice (hard to find enough limes to get this amount of juice)
2. you are right that salsa recipes don’t list a Tablespoon of lemon juice/jar…..like recipes for whole tomato product does, Would you recommend the juice (for safety reasons?)

So yummy and fresh. I added a little cumin seed for depth. I’ll purée and make enchiladas of chicken and queso fresca. It is fun to bring out your summer goodness in February when it’s so dreadful in New England.

I don’t know if I did something wrong, or it was my tiny tomatoes (angels and cherry)… but I have 3 batches, and all of them are horribly bitter. I followed the recipe, to the T. I don’t understand how mine can be so very different from others that say this is the wonderful tasting. Either way, the tomatoes were going to ruin as a frost was on it’s way. Just had to chime in and say this recipe did NOT work for us. (The seals are all good, no problem with that….just very very bitter)

Two batches of sweet tomato relish cooking and then green tomato relish! I have never cooked any green tomatoes other than a FGT sandwich. 🙂 I was given all these pretty gts, and just couldn’t not use them some way. I have a garden full of tomatoes, that is if they all don’t drown with all this south Alabama rain. I have it prepared and my crew taste tested it. They didn’t like all the lime juice, added some ACvinegar and some sugar. They left an empty bowl, so I guess that it passed the taste test I’ll let you know how the cooked version goes. NOW, where am I gonna store all these jars??? Thanks for the recipe.

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